Italy: The government organises “Sales receipt lottery”

The Italian government has some time ago introduced the idea of a “sales receipt lottery”. The lottery is organised by the government and thousands of Euros can be won, both by participating customers and traders. The policy aims to revive the retail trade with the lottery which is starting on the 1st.January 2021.

Especially since the worldwide Corona pandemic started, many retailers have complained of large losses in sales. Online-traders on the contrary profited from this situation and could increase their turnover enormously. However the government’s idea which originally had good intentions faced lots of criticism. The traders are feeling that they are being strictly monitored and do not believe that more customers will be rushing to their stores because of the “sales receipt lottery”. This nationwide lottery which has been announced a long time ago will take off on the 1^st. January 2021. The Italian government introduced this concept to help out the traders which are in crisis. The customers must match the lottery ticket number printed on the sales receipt with the winning numbers published on the government website to be able to take part in the lottery. The local population should thus be motivated to buy more often from local traders and not order everything from online-traders. Before the idea is put into practise, it is already facing criticism from many traders.

Official Lottery for everyone?

The planned “sales receipt lottery“ is a long term project of the Italian government. The key idea is to revive physical trading. The lottery will run weekly and also monthly from the 1st. of January 2021 and customers, as well as traders, who have issued the respective sales receipt will receive a prize. The customer must match the code on his sales receipt with the winning codes announced on the government online platform, to be able to take part in the lottery. Attractive money prizes are planned. If the customer wins for example 10,000 Euro, the trader will get 2,000 Euro from them.

Retailers are indirectly pressured to take part

The Italian government said that no retailer will be forced to officially take part in the “sales receipt lottery”. Those who do not take part will also not be fined by the authorities. However there is a hitch: The participating customers are being asked to report retailers who do not take part to the authorities. In addition, the tax authorities were used in each case. In 2016 a law was already passed which obliges the retailer to modernise the cash point system. The cost of this conversion amounts up to 600 Euro and there will be no state subsidy. Besides, the transition period, up till which time the old cashpoint systems could still be used, will end exactly on the 1^st. January 2021, the day on which the “sales receipt lottery” will start.

Many retailers have still not converted the cash point systems

There is a reason, why many retailers are not interested in the “sales receipt lottery”. According to Information from the daily newspaper La Nazione, many retailers have still not changed their old cashpoint systems. Among other reasons, the Corona pandemic contributed to the fact, that turnover during this year declined. Thus many merchants cannot afford to buy a modern cash point system.

Independent of this, many retailers consider such a lottery not to be the only solution to save physical retailers. One has to make the local shopping experience more attractive, so that one does not lose more customers to online shops. Further to this, many retailers sense that the government’s motivation behind this is to be able to monitor the stationary retailers more and thus prevent tax evasion. A retailer from Florence gave her reaction angrily about the schemes of the Italian government:

“I still have not changed my cash point and do not want to do it. May be this is another way how we can be monitored.“

Conclusion

Prima facie the idea of the Italian government seems to be very good. When one takes a closer look however, it is clear, that the aim of the policy is more to be able to monitor the stationary retailers better. If every retailer has a modern cashpoint system, which is a prerequisite to take part in the “sales receipt lottery”, then the tax authorities can monitor even better the turnover of the retailers. Further to this, it is questionable, whether the majority of the customers will be incentivised to buy locally at their trusted retailer because of a weekly or monthly-organised lottery or whether comfort will win and whether the majority will still continue shopping from the internet.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/rom-vatican-city-italien-tiber-3021586/